The Greek military junta of 1967–1974,
alternatively "The Regime of the Colonels" (Greek: Το καθεστώς των Συνταγματαρχών,
To kathestos ton Syntagmatarhon), or in Greece
"The Junta", (English
pronunciation: /ˈdʒʌntə/ or /ˈhʊntə/; Greek Χούντα,
IPA: [ˈxunda]) and "The Seven Years"
(Greek: Η Επταετία, I eptaetía) are
terms used to refer to a series of right-wing military
governments that ruled Greece
from 1967 to 1974. Rule by the military started in the morning of
21 April 1967 with a coup d'état led by a group of colonels of
the Greek
military, and ended in July 1974.

American influence in
Greece

The Phoenix rising from its flames and
the silhouette of the soldier bearing a rifle with fixed bayonet
was the emblem of the Junta. On the header the word Greece (Ελλας)
and on the footer 21 April 1967, the date of the coup d'état, can
be seen in Greek.

In 1947, the United States formulated the Truman
Doctrine, and began to actively support a series of authoritarian governments in Greece, Turkey and Iran, in order to ensure that these states did not
fall under Soviet influence.[1] With
American and British aid, the civil war ended with
the military defeat of the Left in 1949. The Communist Party of Greece
(KKE) was outlawed and many Communists had to either flee the
country or face persecution. The CIA and the Greek military began to work
closely, especially after Greece joined NATO in 1952. Greece was a vital link in the NATO
defense arc which extended from the eastern border of Iran to the north most point in Norway. Greece in particular was
seen as being in risk, having experienced a Communist
insurgency. In particular, the newly-founded Hellenic National Intelligence Service
(KYP) and the LOK Special
Forces (later actively involved in the 1967 coup) maintained a
very close liaison with their American counterparts. In addition to
preparing for a Soviet invasion, they agreed to guard
against a left wing coup. The LOK in particular were integrated
into the Gladio European stay-behind network.[2]
Although there have been persistent rumors about an active support
of the perpetrators of the coup d'état by the US government there
is no evidence to support such claims.[3][4] It is
however likely that the US military was informed of the coup a few
days in advance by Greek liaison officers.[5]

The Apostasia and
political instability

After many years of conservative rule, the election of centristGeorge Papandreou, Sr. as Prime Minister was a sign of change. In a
bid to gain more control over the country's government than what
his limited constitutional powers allowed, the young and
inexperienced King Constantine II clashed with
liberal reformers, dismissing Papandreou in 1965, causing a
constitutional crisis known as the Apostasia of 1965.

After making several attempts to form governments, relying on
dissident Center Union and conservative MPs, Constantine II
appointed an interim government under Ioannis Paraskevopoulos, and
new elections were called for 28 May 1967. There were many
indications that Papandreou's Center Union would emerge as the largest
party, but would not be able to form a single-party government and
would be forced into an alliance with the United Democratic Left,
which was suspected by conservatives of being a proxy for the
banned Communist Party of Greece.
This possibility was used as a pretext for the coup.

A
"Generals' Coup"

The junta principals in one of their earlier outings together as
they appeared on Greek newspapers such as Vradini. Later these
joint appearances would become much more rare and the military
uniform would be discarded for civilian clothes, in an ultimately
unsuccessful bid to look like, and become, mainstream politicians. Left to
right: Pattakos, Papadopoulos and Makarezos

Greek historiography and the press have also hypothesized about
a "Generals' Coup",[6]
a coup that would have been deployed at the behest of the
palace,[7]
under the pretext of combatting communist subversion.[8]
In the confusion of the first few hours it was actually thought by
many outside observers that the King was behind the coup and many
European newspapers carried headlines accusing Constantine of being
the mastermind behind the events in Greece.

Before the elections that were scheduled for 28 May 1967, with
expectations of a wide Centrist victory, a number of National
Radical Union politicians feared that the policies of leftist
members of the Center
Union, such as Andreas Papandreou and Spyros
Katsotas, would lead to a constitutional crisis. One such
politician, George
Rallis, has recounted he had proposed that, in case of such an
"anomaly", the King should declare martial law, as the monarchist constitution
permitted him. According to Rallis, Constantine was receptive to
the idea.[9]

According to US diplomat John Day, the Americans also worried
that due to the old age of Georgios Papandreou, Andreas Papandreou
would have a very powerful role in the next government. According
to Robert Keely and John Owens, American diplomats attached to the
US Embassy in Greece at the time, Constantine asked US Ambassador
Philip Talbot what would be the attitude of the US government to an
extra-parliamentary solution to this problem. To this the embassy
responded negatively in principle, adding however that "US reaction
to such move cannot be determined in advance but would depend on
circumstances at time". To this day, Constantine denies this. [10]

According to then US Ambassador Philip Talbot, after this
communication, Constantine met with the army generals, who promised
him that they would not take any action before the coming
elections. However the proclamations of Andreas Papandreou made
them nervous, and they resolved to re-examine their decision after
seeing the results of the elections.[10]

In 1966 Constantine II of Greece sent
his envoy Demetrios Bitsios to Paris on mission to convince Constantine Karamanlis to return to Greece
and resume a role in Greek politics. According to uncorroborated
claims made by the former monarch, in 2006 and after the deaths of
the two men involved, Karamanlis replied to Bitsios that he would
only return if the King imposed martial law, as was his constitutional
prerogative.[11]

US journalist Cyrus L. Sulzberger has separately claimed that
Karamanlis flew to New
York to lobby US support from Lauris Norstad for a coup d'état in
Greece that would establish a strong conservative regime under
himself; Sulzberger alleges that Norstad declined to involve
himself in such affairs.[8]
Sulzberger's account, which unlike that of the former King was
delivered during the lifetime of those implicated (Karamanlis and
Norstad), rested solely on the authority of his and Norstad's word.
When, in 1997, the former King reiterated Sulzberger's allegations,
Karamanlis stated that he "will not deal with the former king's
statements because both their content and attitude are unworthy of
comment".[12]
The deposed King's adoption of Sulzberger's claims against
Karamanlis was castigated by the left-leaning media, typically
critical of Karamanlis, as "shameless" and "brazen".[12]
It bears noting that, at the time, the former King referred
exclusively to Sulzberger's account, to support the theory of a
planned coup by Karamanlis, and made no mention of the alleged 1966
meeting with Bitsios, which he would refer to only after both
participants had died and could not respond.

As it turned out, the constitutional crisis did not originate
either from the political parties, or from the Palace, but from
middle-rank army putschists.

The coup d'état of 21
April

The junta members.

On 21 April 1967, (just weeks before the scheduled elections), a
group of right-wing army officers led by Brigadier Stylianos
Pattakos and Colonels George
Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos seized power in a
coup d'etat. The colonels were able to
quickly seize power by using surprise and confusion. Pattakos was
commander of the Armour Training Centre (Greek: Κέντρο Εκπαίδευσης Τεθωρακισμένων, ΚΕΤΘ),
based in Athens. The coup leaders placed tanks in strategic
positions in Athens,
effectively gaining complete control of the city. At the same time,
a large number of small mobile units were dispatched to arrest
leading politicians and authority figures, as well as many ordinary
citizens suspected of left-wing sympathies, according to lists
prepared in advance. One of the first to be arrested was Lieutenant
General Gregorios Spandidakis, Commander-in-Chief of the Greek
Army.

The conspirators were known to Spandidakis. Indeed, he was
instrumental in bringing some of them to Athens, to use in a coup
he and other leading Army generals had been planning, in an attempt
to prevent George Papandreou's victory
in the upcoming election and the Communist takeover that would,
supposedly, follow it. The colonels succeeded in persuading
Spandidakis to join them and he issued orders activating an action
plan (the "Prometheus" plan) that had been previously drafted as a
response for a hypothetical Communist uprising (see Operation
Gladio). Under the command of paratrooper Lieutenant Colonel
Kostas Aslanides, the LOK (see above) took control of the Greek Defence
Ministry while Brigadier GeneralStylianos
Pattakos gained control over communication centers, the parliament, the royal palace, and according
to detailed lists, arrested over 10,000 people. Since orders came
from a legal source, commanders and units not involved in the
conspiracy automatically obeyed them. Many of the arrested were
held during the first days at the Phalironrace track and some of
them were executed in cold blood by young army officers.

By the early morning hours the whole of Greece was in the hands
of the colonels. All leading politicians, including acting Prime
Minister Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, had
been arrested and were held incommunicado by the conspirators. Phillips
Talbot, the US ambassador in Athens, disapproved of the
military coup, complaining that it represented "A rape of
democracy", to which Jack Maury, the CIA chief of station in
Athens, answered, "How can you rape a whore?"[13] The
Papadopoulos' junta attempted to re-engineer the Greek political
landscape by coup.

The role of
the King

King Constantine II surrounded
by the junta Government at the swearing-in ceremony of the
dictators.

When the tanks rolled on to Athens streets on 21 April, the
legitimate National Radical Union government, of which Rallis was a
member, asked King Constantine to immediately mobilise the state
against the coup; he declined to do so, and swore in the dictators
as the legitimate government of Greece, while asserting that he was
"certain they had acted in order to save the country".

The three plot leaders visited Constantine in his residence in
Tatoi, which
they circled with tanks, effectively preventing any form of
resistance. The King wrangled with the colonels and initially
dismissed them, ordering them to return with Spantidakis. Later in
the day he took it upon himself to go to the Ministry of National
Defence, located north of Athens city centre, where all the coup
leaders were gathered. The King had a discussion with
Kanellopoulos, who was detained there, and with leading generals.
This was a pointless exercise, since Kanellopoulos was a prisoner
whilst the generals had no real power, as was evident from the
shouting of lower and middle-ranking officers, refusing to obey
orders and clamouring for a new government under Spantidakis.

The King finally relented and decided to co-operate, claiming to
this day that he was isolated and did not know what else to do. He
has since claimed that he was trying to gain time to organise a
counter-coup and oust the Junta. He did organise such a
counter-coup; however, the fact that the new government had a legal
sanction, in that it had been appointed by the legitimate head of
state, played an important role in the coup's success. The King was
later to regret bitterly his decision. For many Greeks, it served
to identify him indelibly with the coup and certainly played an
important role in the final decision to abolish the monarchy,
sanctioned by the 1974 referendum.

The only concession the King could achieve was to appoint a
civilian as prime minister, rather than Spantidakis. Konstantinos Kollias, a former
Attorney General of the Areios Pagos, was
chosen. He was a well-known royalist and had even been disciplined
under the Papandreou government for meddling in the investigation
on the murder of MP Gregoris Lambrakis. Kollias was
little more than a figurehead and real power rested with the army,
and especially Papadopoulos, who emerged as the coup's strong man
and became Minister of Defence and Minister of the Government's
Presidency. Other coup members occupied key posts.

Up until then constitutional legitimacy had been preserved,
since under the then-Greek Constitution the King could appoint
whomever he wanted as prime minister, as long as Parliament
endorsed the appointment with a vote of confidence or a general
election was called. It was this government, sworn-in in the early
evening hours of 21 April, that formalised the coup. It adopted a
"Constituent Act", an amendment tantamount to a revolution,
canceling the elections and effectively abolishing the
constitution, which would be replaced later. In the meantime, the
government was to rule by decree. Since traditionally such
Constituent Acts did not need to be signed by the Crown, the King
never signed it, permitting him to claim, years later, that he had
never signed any document instituting the junta. Critics claim that
Constantine II did nothing to prevent the government (and
especially his chosen prime minister Kollias) from legally
instituting the authoritarian government to come. This same
government formally published and enforced a decree, already
proclaimed on radio as the coup was in progress, instituting
military law. Constantine claimed he never signed that decree
either.

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The
King's counter-coup

From the outset, the relationship between King Constantine II
and the Colonels was an uneasy one. The colonels were not willing
to share power with anyone, whereas the young King, like his father
before him, was used to playing an active role in politics and
would never consent to being a mere figurehead, especially in a
military administration. Although the colonels' strong
anti-communist, pro-NATO and
pro-Western views appealed to the United States, fearful of domestic and
international public opinion, President of the United
StatesLyndon B. Johnson told Constantine,
in a visit to Washington, D.C. in early autumn of
1967, that it would be best to replace that government with another
one. Constantine took that as an encouragement to organise a
counter-coup and it was probably meant as one, although no direct
help or involvement of the US was forthcoming.

The King finally decided to launch his counter-coup on 13
December 1967. Since Athens was effectively in the hands of the
junta militarily, Constantine decided to fly to the small northern
city of Kavala. There he hoped
to be among troops loyal only to him. The vague plan he and his
advisors had conceived was to form a unit that would advance on and
take Thessaloniki.
Constantine planned to install an alternative administration there.
International recognition, which he believed to be forthcoming, as
well as internal pressure from the fact that Greece would have been
split in two governments would, the King hoped, force the junta to
resign, leaving the field clear for him to return triumphant to
Athens.

However, the King's plans were overly bureaucratic, naïvely
supposing that orders from a commanding general would automatically
be obeyed. Further, the King was obsessive about avoiding
"bloodshed", even where the junta would be the attacker. Instead of
attempting to drum up the widest popular support, hoping for
spontaneous pro-democracy risings in most towns, the King preferred
to let his generals put together the necessary force for advancing
on Thessaloniki in strict compliance with military bureaucracy. The
King made no attempt to contact politicians, even local ones, and
even took care to include in his proclamation a paragraph
condemning communism, lest anyone should get the wrong idea.

In the circumstances, rather than the King managing to put
together a force and advancing on Thessaloniki, middle-ranking
pro-junta officers neutralised and arrested his royalist generals
and took command of their units, which subsequently put together a
force to advance on Kavala to arrest the King. The junta, not at
all shaken by the loss of their figurehead premier, ridiculed the
King by announcing that he was hiding "from village to village".
Realising that the counter coup had failed, Constantine fled Greece
on board the royal plane, taking his family and helpless Prime
Minister with him. They landed in Rome early in the morning of 14 December.
Constantine remained in exile all through the rest of military rule
(although nominally he continued as King until 1 June 1973) and was
never to return to Greece as King.

The
Regency

The flight of the King and Prime Minister to Italy left Greece
with no legal government or head of state. This did not concern the
military junta. Instead the Revolutionary Council, composed of Pattakos,
Papadopoulos and Makarezos, issued a notice in the
Government Gazette appointing another member to the military
administration, Major General Georgios Zoitakis, as Regent. Zoitakis then appointed
Papadopoulos Prime Minister. This became the only government of
Greece after the failure of the King's attempted coup, as the King
was unwilling to set up an alternative administration in exile. The
Regent's position was later confirmed under the 1968 Constitution,
although the exiled King never officially recognised, or
acknowledged, the Regency.

In a legally controversial move, even under the junta's own
Constitution, the Cabinet voted on 21 March 1972 to oust Zoitakis
and replace him with Papadopoulos, thus combining the offices of
Regent and Prime Minister. It was thought Zoitakis was problematic
and interfered too much with the military. The King's portrait
remained on coins, in public buildings, etc., but slowly, the
military was chipping away at the institution of the monarchy: the
royal family's tax immunity was abolished, the complex network of
royally managed charities was brought under direct state control,
the royal arms were removed from coins, the Navy and Air Force were
no longer "Royal" and the newspapers were usually banned from
publishing the King's photo or any interviews.

During this period, resistance against the colonels' rule became
better organized among exiles in Europe and the United States. In
addition to the expected opposition from the left, the colonels
found themselves under attack by constituencies that had
traditionally supported past right-wing regimes: pro-monarchists
supporting Constantine; businessmen concerned over international
isolation; the middle class facing an economic downturn after 1971.
There was also considerable political infighting within the junta.
Still, up until 1973 the junta appeared in firm control of Greece,
and not likely to be ousted by violent means.

Characteristics of the
Junta

Ideology

The colonels preferred to call the coup d'état of 21 April a "revolution to save the
nation" ("Ethnosotirios Epanastasis"). Their official justification
for the coup was that a "communist conspiracy" had infiltrated the
bureaucracy, academia, the press, and even the military, to such
an extent that drastic action was needed to protect the country
from communist takeover. Thus, the defining characteristic of the
Junta was its staunch anti-Communism. They
used the term anarcho-communist
(Greek: αναρχοκομμουνιστές,
anarchokommounistes) to describe all leftists. In a similar vein
the junta attempted to steer Greek public opinion not only by
propaganda but also by inventing new words and
slogans, such as old-partyism (palaiokommatismos)
to discredit parliamentary democracy, or Greece for Christian
Greeks (Ellas Ellinon Christianon) to underscore
its ideology.

The junta's main ideological spokesmen included Georgios
Georgalas and journalist Savvas Konstantopoulos, both former Marxists.
Its propaganda often relied on fabricated evidence and fictional
enemies of the state. Atheism and pop culture, such as rock music and the hippies, were also seen as parts
of this conspiracy. Nationalism and Christianity were widely promoted.

Civil
rights

As soon as the coup d'état was announced over the radio on
Friday, 21 April 1967, martial music was continuously broadcast
over the airwaves.[14]
This was interrupted from time to time with announcements of the
junta issuing orders that always started with the introduction "We
decide and we order" (Greek: Αποφασίζομεν και διατάσσομεν). Long standing
political freedoms and civil liberties, that had been taken for
granted and enjoyed by the Greek people for decades, were instantly
suppressed. Article 14 of the Greek
Constitution which protected freedom of thought and freedom
of the press was immediately suspended.[15][16]
Military courts were established, and political parties were
dissolved. Legislation that took decades to fine tune and multiple
parliaments to enact was thus erased in a matter of days. The rapid
devolution of Greek democracy had begun.

Examples of the types of torture commonly used include (amongst
others):[21]

Beating the soles of people's feet with sticks and pieces of
metal pipe.

Sexual torture such as shoving objects into people's
vagina/anus and twisting them violently, or hoses shoved into the
anus and forcing water in at high pressure.

Choking people and shoving rags soaked in urine and excrement
down their throats

Ripping out hair from the head and pubic regions.

Jumping on people's stomachs

Pulling out toenails and fingernails

According to a human rights report by Amnesty
International, in the first month of the 21 April coup an
estimated 8,000 people were arrested.[17][18]
James Becket,[22] an
American attorney and author of Barbarism in Greece,[23][24]
was sent to Greece by Amnesty International and wrote in December
1969 that "a conservative estimate would place at not less than two
thousand" the number of people tortured.[17]

The citizens' right of assembly was revoked and
no political demonstrations were allowed. Surveillance on citizens
was a fact of life, even during permitted social activities. That
had a continuously chilling effect on the population who realised
that, even though they were allowed certain social activities, they
could not overstep the boundaries and delve into or discuss
forbidden subjects. This realisation including the absence of any
civil rights as well as maltreatment during police arrest, ranging
from threats to beatings or worse, made life under the junta a
difficult proposition for many ordinary citizens.

Following the junta's logic, one was allowed to participate in a
rock concert, as an example, but if any misbehaviour occurred
during that activity that was not up to junta's standards, the
resulting arrest, coupled with the complete absence of any civil
rights, could easily lead to beatings and labelling of the
individual as an anarchist, communist, a combination of these
terms, or worse. The absence of a valid code of jurisprudence led
to the unequal application of the law among the citizens and to
rampant favouritism and nepotism. Absence of elected representation
meant that the citizens' stark and only choice was to submit to
these arbitrary measures exactly as dictated by the junta. The
country had become a true police state.[25]

Complete lack of press freedom coupled with non
existing civil rights meant that continuous cases of civil rights
abuses could neither be reported nor investigated by an independent
press or any other reputable authority. This led to a psychology of fear among the citizens during the
Papadopoulos dictatorship, which became worse under Ioannides.

External
relations

The military government was given support by the United States
as a Cold War ally, due to
its proximity to the Eastern EuropeanSoviet bloc, and the fact that the previous
Truman administration had given the country
millions of dollars in economic aid to discourage Communism. US support for
the junta, which was violently anti-communist, is claimed to be the
cause of rising anti-Americanism in Greece during and
following the junta's undemocratic rule.[26]

Greece's allies in Western Europe were split in their attitudes
toward the Junta. The Scandinavian countries as well as the
Netherlands took a very hostile stance towards the Junta and filed
a complaint before the Human Rights Commission of the Council of
Europe in September 1967. Greece however opted for leaving the
Council of Europe voluntarily in December 1969 before a verdict was
handed down.

Countries such as the United Kingdom and the Federal
Republic of Germany on the other hand were voicing criticism
about Greece's human rights record but supported the countries
continued membership in the Council of Europe and NATO because of the country's strategic value for
the western alliance.

Sociocultural policies

To gain support for his rule, Papadopoulos projected an image
that appealed to some key segments of Greek society. The son of a
poor but educated rural family, he was educated at the prestigious
Hellenic Military Academy.
Papadopoulos allowed substantial social and cultural freedoms to
all social
classes, but political oppression and censorship were at times heavy handed,
especially in areas deemed sensitive by the junta, such as
political activities, and politically related art, literature, film
and music. Kostas
Gavras's film Z and Mikis Theodorakis's music, among
others, were never officially allowed even during the most relaxed
times of the dictatorship, and an index of prohibited songs,
literature and art was kept.

Western
music and film

Remarkably, after some initial hesitation and as long as they
were not deemed to be politically damaging to the junta, junta
censors allowed wide access to Western music and films. Even the
then racy, West
German film Helga (German: Helga. Vom Werden des menschlichen
Lebens, Greek: Helga, η ιστορία μίας γυναίκας), a 1967 sex educationdocumentary
featuring a live birth scene, had no trouble making its debut in
Greece just like in any other Western country.[27]
Moreover, the film was only restricted for those under 13 years of
age. In 1971 Robert Hartford-Davis was allowed
by the junta to film the classic horror film Incense for the
Damned, starring Peter Cushing and Patrick Macnee
and suitably featuring Chryseis (Χρυσηίς), a beguiling Greek siren with vampire tendencies, on the Greek island of Hydra.[28][29][30]
In 1970 the film Woodstock was shown all over
Greece, with reports of arrests and disturbances especially in
Athens as many youths flocked to see the film and filled theatres
to capacity, while many others were left outside.[31][32]

Meanwhile at Matala, Crete, a hippie colony which had been living in the caves
since the 1960s, was never disturbed. Singer songwriter Joni Mitchell was
inspired to write the song "Carey" after staying in the Matala caves
with the hippie community in 1971. Hippie colonies also existed in
other popular tourist spots such as "Paradise Beach" in Mykonos.[33]

Greek
rock

Western music broadcasts were limited from the airwaves in
favour of martial music, but this was eventually
relaxed. In addition, pop/rock music programmes such as the one hosted
by famous Greek music/radio/television
personality and promoterNico
Mastorakis were very popular throughout the dictatorship years
both on radio and television.[34]
Most Western record sales were similarly not restricted. In fact,
even rockconcerts and tours were allowed such as by the then
popular rock groupsSocrates Drank the Conium and
Nostradamos.[35][36
][37
][38]
Another pop group "Poll" was a pioneer of Greek pop music in the
late 1960s.[39] Its
lead singer and composer was Robert Williams, who was later joined,
in 1971, by Kostas Tournas.[40][41]Poll enjoyed a number of nationwide hits, such as
"Anthrope Agapa (Humankind Love One Another)", an anti-war song, composed by
Tournas and "Ela Ilie Mou (Come, My Sun)",[42]
composed by Tournas, Williams),[43][44]
Tournas later pursued a solo career and in 1972 produced the progressivepsychedelic hit solo
album Aperanta Chorafia (Greek: Απέραντα Χωράφια, Infinite
Fields).[45]
He wrote and arranged the album using an orchestra and a rock group ("Ruth")
combination.[45][46]

While the lyrics of "Poll" were composed exclusively in Greek,
the band's name was an English word rendered in Greek characters,
Πολλ. The dictionary
definition of poll, a sampling or collection of opinions on a
subject or the voting at an election, apparently did
not register with the Greek military junta censors.

Songwriter and troubadourDionysis Savvopoulos, who was
initially imprisoned by the regime, nevertheless rose to great
popularity and produced a number of influential and highly
politically allegorical,
especially against the junta, albums during the period, including
To Perivoli tou Trellou (Greek: Το
Περιβόλι του Τρελλού, The Madman's Orchard), Ballos
(Greek: Μπάλλος, Name of Greek folk dance)
and Vromiko Psomi (Greek: Βρώμικο Ψωμί, Dirty Bread).[32]

Tourism

Concurrently, tourism was
actively encouraged by Papadopoulos' government and, funding
scandals notwithstanding, the tourist sector saw great development.
With tourism came the nightlife.
However, under Papadopoulos, in the absence of any civil rights
these sociocultural freedoms existed in a legal vacuum that meant
they were not guaranteed, but rather dispensed at the whim of the
junta. In addition any transgressing into political matters during
social or cultural activities usually meant arrest and punishment.
Although discos and nightclubs were, initially,
subjected to a curfew,
partially due to an energy crisis, this was eventually
extended from 1.00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. as the energy crisis
eased.[33] These freedoms were later
reversed by Dimitrios
Ioannides after his coup.

Agriculture

The farmers were Papadopoulos' natural constituency and were more likely to
support him, seeing him, because of his rural roots, as one of
their own. He cultivated this relationship by appealing to them,
calling them the backbone of the people (Greek: η ραχοκοκαλιά του λαού) and
cancelling all agricultural loans.[47]
By further insisting on promoting, but not really enforcing for
fear of middle-class backlash, religion and patriotism, he further appealed to the
simpler ideals of rural Greece and strengthened his image as
people's champion among farmers, who tended to ridicule the middle
class. Furthermore, the regime promoted a policy of economic
development in rural areas, which were mostly neglected by the
previous governments, that had focused largely on urban industrial
development.

Urban
classes

Papadopoulos was less likely to appeal to the largely civilian and city-oriented middle class, since he was a military man from a rural
background. In addition, he had promised from the beginning that
the dictatorship would not be permanent, and that when political
order was established democratic rule would return.[48
] On top of that, his promotion of tourism and
other beneficial economic measures and the fact that, with the
notable exceptions of political freedoms and press censorship, he
did not otherwise substantially restrict the middle class, had the
effect of assisting the junta in establishing its control over the
country by gaining, at least initially, the reluctant acquiescence
of some key segments of the population.

Economic
policies

The 1967–1973 period was marked by high rates of economic growth
coupled with low inflation and low unemployment. GDP growth was driven by
investment in the tourism industry,
public spending, and pro-business incentives that fostered both
domestic and foreign capital spending. Several international
companies invested in Greece at the time, including the Coca-Cola Corporation.
Economic growth started losing steam by 1972.[48
] In addition, large scale construction of hydroelectric
dam projects, such as in Aliakmon, Kastrakion, Polyphytos, the
expansion of Thermoelectric generation units and other
significant infrastructure development, took place. The junta used
to proudly announce these projects with the slogan: "Greece is a construction zone" (Η Ελλάς είναι ένα
εργοτάξιον). The always smiling Stylianos Pattakos, also known as
the first trowel of Greece, (Το πρώτο μυστρί της Ελλάδας),
since he frequently appeared at project inaugurations with a trowel in hand, starred in many
of the Epikairapropaganda documentaries that were screened
before feature film presentation in Greek cinemas.[49]

Financial
scandals

Cases of non-transparent public deals and corruption allegedly
occurred at the time, given the lack of democratic checks and
balances and the absence of a free press. One such event is
associated with the regime's tourism minister, Ioannis Ladas (Greek: Ιωάννης Λαδάς). During his
administration, several low-interest loans, amortized over a
twenty-year period, were issued for tourist development. This
fostered the erection of a multitude of hotels, sometimes in
non-tourist areas, and with no underlying business rationale.
Several such hotels were abandoned unfinished as soon as the loans
were secured, and their remains still dot the Greek countryside.
These questionable loans are referred to as Thalassodaneia
(Greek: θαλασσοδάνεια), or "loans of the
sea", to indicate the loose terms under which they were
granted.[50]

Another contested policy of the regime was the writing-off of
agricultural loans, up to a value of 100,000 drachmas, to farmers.
This has been attributed to an attempt by Papadopoulos to gain
public support for his regime.

Assassination attempt by
Panagoulis

The assassination attempt took place in the morning of 13
August, when Papadopoulos went from his summer residence in Lagonisi to Athens, escorted by his personal security
motorcycles and cars. Alexandros Panagoulis ignited a
bomb at a point of the coastal road where the limousine carrying
Papadopoulos would have to slow down, but the bomb failed to harm
Papadopoulos. Panagoulis was captured a few hours later in a nearby
sea cave, as the boat that would let him escape the scene of the
attack had not shown up.

Panagoulis was transferred to the Greek
Military Police (EAT-ESA) offices, where he was questioned,
beaten and tortured (see the proceedings of Theofiloyiannakos's
trial). On 17 November 1968 he was sentenced to death, and remained
in prison for five years. After the restoration of democracy,
Panagoulis was elected a Member of Parliament. Panagoulis is
regarded as an emblematic figure for the struggle to restore
democracy.

Broadening of the
movement

Poster of the film Z by Costa-Gavras, about
the political assassination of Gregoris Lambrakis. "He is alive!"
can be seen in the poster caption under the large Z, written in
French, referring to the popular Greek protest slogan "Ζεί" meaning
"he (Lambrakis) is alive".

The funeral of George
Papandreou, Sr. on 3 November 1968 spontaneously turned into a
massive demonstration against the junta. Thousands of Athenians disobeyed the
military's orders and followed the casket to the cemetery. The
government reacted by arresting 41 people.

On 28 March 1969, after two years of widespread censorship,
political detentions and torture, Giorgos Seferis, recipient of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1963, took a stand against the junta. He made
a statement on the BBC World Service,[51] with
copies simultaneously distributed to every newspaper in Athens.
Attacking the colonels, he passionately demanded that "This anomaly
must end". Seferis did not live to see the end of the junta. His
funeral, though, on September 20, 1972, turned into a massive
demonstration against the military government.

Also in 1969, Costa-Gavras released the film Z, based on a book
by celebrated left-wing writer Vassilis Vassilikos. The film,
banned in Greece, presented a lightly fictionalized account of the
events surrounding the assassination of United Democratic Left MP Gregoris
Lambrakis in 1963. The film captured the sense of outrage about
the junta. The soundtrack of the film was written by Mikis
Theodorakis, who was imprisoned by the junta and later went
into exile, and the music was smuggled into the country to be added
to the other inspirational, underground Theodorakis tracks.

A lesser known Danish film, in Greek, Your
Neighbor's Son, detailed the subordination and training of
simple youths to become torturers for the junta.

International protest

The junta exiled thousands on the grounds that they were
communists and/or "enemies of the country". Most of them were
subjected to internal exile on Greek deserted islands, such as Makronisos, Gyaros, Gioura, or inhabited islands such as Leros, Agios Eustratios
or Trikeri. The most famous
were in external exile, most of whom were substantially involved in
the resistance, organising protests in European capital cities, or
helping and hiding refugees from Greece. These included: Melina
Mercouri, actor, singer (and, after 1981 Minister for Culture); Mikis
Theodorakis, composer of resistance songs; Costas Simitis,
(prime minister from 1996 to
2004); Andreas Papandreou, (prime minister
from 1981 to 1989 and again from 1993 to 1996); and Lady Amalia Fleming,
(wife of Sir Alexander Fleming, philanthropist,
political activist). Some chose exile, unable to stand life under
the junta. For example Melina Mercouri was allowed to enter
Greece, but stayed away on her own accord. Also in the early hours
of 19 September 1970 in Matteotti square in Genoa, Geology student Kostas Georgakis set himself ablaze in
protest against the dictatorship of George Papadopoulos. The junta
delayed the arrival of his remains to Corfu for four months, fearing public reaction
and protests. At the time his death caused a sensation in Greece
and abroad as it was the first tangible manifestation of the depth
of resistance against the junta. He is the only known anti-junta
resistance activist to have sacrificed himself and he is considered
the precursor of later student protest, such as the Athens Polytechnic
uprising. The Municipality of Corfu has dedicated a memorial in his honour near
his home in Corfu
city.

The German writer, investigative reporter and
journalist Günter Wallraff traveled to Greece in
May 1974. While in Syntagma Square, he protested against
human right violations. He was arrested and tortured by the police,
as he did not carry, on purpose, any papers on him that could
identify him as a foreigner. After his identity was revealed,
Wallraff was convicted and sentenced to 14 months in jail. He was
released in August, after the end of the dictatorship.[52]

The
Velos mutiny

VELOS D16 (Greek: ΒΕΛΟΣ, "ARROW"), now a museum in the Gulf of
Faliron in Athens

In an anti-junta protest, on 23 May 1973, HNS
Velos, under the command of Commander Nicholaos Pappas,
refused to return to Greece after participating in a NATO exercise and remained anchored
at Fiumicino, Italy. During a patrol with other NATO vessels
between continental Italy and Sardinia, the captain and the
officers heard over the radio that a number of fellow naval
officers had been arrested in Greece. Cdr Pappas was involved in a
group of democratic officers, who remained loyal to their oath to
obey the Constitution, which was planning to act against the junta.
Evangelos
Averoff also participated in the Velos mutiny, for which he was
later arrested as an "instigator".

Pappas believed that since his fellow anti-junta officers had
been arrested, there was no more hope for a movement inside Greece.
He therefore decided to act alone in order to motivate global
public opinion. He mustered all the crew to the stern and announced
his decision, which was received with enthusiasm by the crew.
Pappas signalled his intentions to the squadron commander and NATO
headquarters, quoting the preamble of the North
Atlantic Treaty, which declares that "all governments ... are
determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and
civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of
democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law", and, leaving
formation, sailed for Rome. There, anchored about 3.5 nautical
miles (6 km) away from the coast of Fiumicino, three ensigns
sailed ashore with a whaleboat, went to Fiumicino Airport and telephoned the
international press agencies, notifying them of the situation in
Greece, the presence of the destroyer, and that the captain would
hold a press conference the next day.

This action increased international interest in the situation in
Greece. The captain, six officers, and twenty five petty officers requested and remained
abroad as political refugees. Indeed, the whole crew wished to
follow their captain but were advised by its officers to remain
onboard and return to Greece to inform families and friends about
what happened. Velos returned to Greece after a month with
a replacement crew. After the fall of junta all officers and petty
officers returned to the Navy.

Collapse

The collapse of the junta both ideologically and politically was
triggered by a series of events which unfolded soon after
Papadopoulos' attempt at liberalisation, with ideological collapse
preceding its eventual political collapse. During and following
this ill-fated process the internal political strains of the junta
came to the fore and pitted the junta factions against each other, thus
destroying the seemingly monolithic cohesion of the dictatorship.
This had the effect of seriously weakening the coherence of the
political message and, consequently, the credibility of the regime,
a fatal blow from which, as later events would show, it never
recovered. At the same time, during Papadopoulos' attempt at
liberalisation, some of the junta constraints were removed from the
body politic of
Greece and that led to demands for more freedoms, and political
unrest, in a society well used to democratic action prior to the
dictatorship.

Normalization and
attempts at liberalization

Papadopoulos had indicated as early as 1968 that he was eager
for a reform process and even tried to contact Markezinis at the
time. He had declared at the time that he did not want the
"Revolution", (junta speak for
the "dictatorship"), to become a "regime". He then repeatedly
attempted to initiate reforms in 1969 and 1970, only to be thwarted
by the hardliners including Ioannidis. In fact subsequent to his
1970 failed attempt at reform, he threatened to resign and was
dissuaded only after the hardliners renewed their personal
allegiance to him.[48
]

On 10 April 1970 Papadopoulos announced the formation of the
Simvouleftiki Epitropi (Συμβουλευτική Επιτροπή) translated
as the Advisory Council (Committee) otherwise known as
Papadopoulos' (pseudo) Parliament.[53][54]
Composed of members elected through an electoral type process but
limited to ethnikofrones only, it was bicameral, composed
of the Central Advisory Council and the Provincial Advisory
Council. The Central Council met in Athens in the Parliament
Building. Both councils had the purpose to advise the dictator. At
the time of the announcement of the formation of the council,
Papadopoulos explained that he wanted to avoid using the term
"Vouli" (Parliament) for the Committee because it sounded bad.[54]
The council was dissolved just prior to Papadopoulos' failed
attempt to liberalise his regime with Markezinis.As internal
dissatisfaction grew in the early 1970s, and especially after an
abortive coup by the Navy in early 1973,[48
] Papadopoulos attempted to legitimize the regime
by beginning a gradual "democratization" (See also the article on
Metapolitefsi).
On 1 June 1973, he abolished the monarchy and declared himself
President of the Republic after a controversial referendum, the
results of which were not recognised by the political parties. He
furthermore sought the support of the old political establishment,
but secured only the cooperation of Spiros
Markezinis, who became Prime Minister. Concurrently, many
restrictions were lifted, and the army's role significantly
reduced. Papadopoulos intended to establish a presidential republic, with extensive
powers vested in the office of President, which he held. The
decision to return to political rule and the restriction of their
role was resented by many of the regime's supporters in the Army, whose
dissatisfaction with Papadopoulos would become evident a few months
later.

The uprising at the
Polytechnic

Papadopoulos' heavy handed attempt at liberalisation did not
find favour among many in Greece. The stilted democratisation
process he proposed was constrained by multiple factors. His
inexperience at carrying out an unprecedented political experiment
of democratisation was burdened by his tendency to concentrate as
much power in his hands as possible, a weakness he exhibited during
the dictatorship years when he would sometimes hold multiple high
echelon government portfolios. This antagonised many but especially
the intelligentsia whose primary exponents
were the students. The students at the Law School in Athens, for
example, demonstrated multiple times against the dictatorship prior
to the events at the Polytechneion.

The tradition of student protest was always strong in
Greece, even before the dictatorship. Papadopoulos tried hard to
suppress and discredit the student movement during his tenure at
the helm of the junta. But the liberalisation process he undertook
allowed the students to organise more freely and this gave the
opportunity to the students at the Athens Polytechnic to organise a
demonstration that grew increasingly larger and more effective. The
political momentum was on the side of the students. Sensing this
the Papadopoulos junta panicked and reacted violently.

On the early hours of Saturday, 17 November 1973 Papadopoulos sent the
army to suppress the student strike and sit-in of the "Free
Besieged" (Ελεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι), as the students called
themselves, at the National Technical
University of Athens which had commenced on November 14.
Shortly after 03:00 am and under almost complete cover of darkness,
an AMX 30
tank crashed through the rail gate of the Athens Polytechnic with
subsequent loss of life. The army also occupied Syntagma Square and
for at least that day. Even the sidewalk cafes were closed.

Ioannidis' involvement in inciting unit commanders of the
security forces to commit criminal acts during the Athens
Polytechnic uprising, so that he could facilitate his upcoming
coup, was noted in the indictment presented to the court by the
prosecutor during the junta trials and
in his subsequent conviction in the Polytechneion trial where he
was found to have been morally responsible for the events.[55][56]

The
Ioannidis regime

The uprising triggered a series of events that put an abrupt end
to Papadopoulos' attempts at "liberalisation".

Ioannidis's heavy-handed and opportunistic intervention had the
effect of destroying the myth that the junta was an idealistic group
of army officers with exactly the same ideals who came to save
Greece by using their collectivewisdom. The main tenet of the junta ideology (and mythology) was gone and so was the
collective. By default, he remained the only man at the top after
toppling the other three principals of the junta.
Characteristically, he cited ideological reasons for ousting the
Papadopoulos faction, accusing them with straying from the
principles of the Revolution, especially of being corrupt and
misusing their privileges as army officers for financial gains.

Papadopoulos and his junta always claimed that the 21 April 1967
"revolution" saved Greece from the old party system. Now Ioannidis
was, in effect, claiming that his coup saved the revolution from
the Papadopoulos faction. The dysfunction as well as the
ideological fragmentation and fractionalisation of the junta was
finally out in the open. Ioannidis, however, did not make these
accusations personally as he always tried to avoid unnecessary
publicity. The radio broadcasts, following the now familiar
coup in progress scenario featuring martial music
interspersed with military orders and curfew announcements, kept
repeating that the army was taking back the reins of power in order
to save the principles of the revolution and that the overthrow of
the Papadopoulos-Markezinis government was supported by the army,
navy and air force.[57]

At the same time they announced that the new coup was a
"continuation of the revolution of 1967" and accused Papadopoulos
with "straying from the ideals of the 1967 revolution" and "pushing
the country towards parliamentary rule too quickly".[57]

Previous to seizing power, Ioannidis preferred to work in the
background and he never held any formal office in the junta. Now he
was the de facto leader of
a puppet regime
composed by members some of whom were rounded up by ESA
soldiers in roving jeeps to
serve and others that were simply chosen by mistake.[58
][59]
The Ioannides method of forming a government dealt yet another blow
to the rapidly diminishing credibility of the regime both at home
and abroad.

The new junta, despite its rather inauspicious origins, pursued
an aggressive internal crackdown and an expansionist foreign
policy.

Sponsored by Ioannidis, on 15 July 1974 the EOKA-B organisation took power on the island of Cyprus by a military coup, in
which Archbishop Makarios III, the Cypriot
president, was overthrown. Turkey replied to this intervention by invading Cyprus and
occupying, after heavy fighting with the Cypriot and Greek ELDYK Forces
(Greek: ΕΛΔΥΚ, Ελληνική Δύναμη Κύπρου, Greek Force
for Cyprus), the northern part of the island. There was a
well-founded fear that an all out war with Turkey was imminent.

While the physical collapse of the junta as a government was
immediately caused by the Cyprus debacle, its ideological collapse was
triggered by the 1973 Athens Polytechnic
uprising. The uprising at the Polytechneion was the event that
discredited the military government most and acted as a key
catalyst for its eventual demise by exposing the internal
contradictions and stresses of the regime thus destroying the myth
of the political cohesion of the junta and, therefore, irreparably
damaging the political credibility of the "Ethnosotirios
Epanastasis" and its message.

The
trials of the junta

The Junta on trial. Front row (from left): Papadopoulos, Makarezos,
Pattakos. Ioannides can be seen on the second row, just behind
Pattakos

In January 1975 the junta members were formally arrested and in
early August of the same year the government of Konstantinos
Karamanlis brought charges of high treason and insurrection against
Georgios Papadopoulos and nineteen other co-conspirators of the
military junta.[60]
The mass trial was staged at the Korydallos Prison. The trial was
described as "Greece's Nuremberg".[60]
One thousand soldiers armed with submachine guns provided security.[60]
The roads leading to the jail were patrolled by tanks.[60]
Papadopoulos, Pattakos, Makarezos and Ioannides were sentenced to
death for high treason.[61]
These sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment by the Karamanlis
government. A plan to grant amnesty to the junta principals by the Konstantinos Mitsotakis
government in 1990 was cancelled after protests from conservatives,
socialists and communists.[62]
Papadopoulos died in hospital in 1999 after being transferred from
Korydallos while Ioannides remains incarcerated to this day. This
trial was followed by a second trial which centered on the events
of the Athens Polytechnic uprising
and a third called "The trial of the torturers".

Legacy

The historical repercussions of the junta were profound and are
still felt to this day in Greece. Internally the absence of civil
rights and the oppression that followed created a sense of fear and
persecution among many in the population creating trauma and
division that persisted long after the fall of the junta. The
Cyprus debacle created a tragedy that is still unfolding.[63][64][65][66] While
the Cyprus fiasco was due to the actions of Ioannides,[67] it
was Papadopoulos who started the cycle of coups. Externally the
absence of human rights in a country belonging to the Western Bloc during
the cold
war was a continuous source of embarrassment for the free world
(considering Greece is the inventor of democracy) and this and
other reasons made Greece an international pariah abroad and
interrupted her process of integration with the European Union
with incalculable opportunity costs.[63]

The 21st of April regime remains highly controversial to this
day, with most Greeks holding very strong and polarized views in
regards to it. According to a survey by Kapa Research published in
the center-left newspaper "To Vima" in 2002, the majority of the
electoral body (54.7%) consider the regime to have been bad or
harmful for Greece while 20.7% consider it to have been good for
Greece and 19.8% believe that it was neither good nor harmful.[68]

In 1999 President Bill Clinton apologised on the behalf of
the US government for supporting the military junta in the name of
Cold War tactics.[69][70]

^ abcdThird World Traveller
(excerpted from the book Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA
Interventions Since World War II, revised edition (Common Courage
Press) ISBN 1-56751-252-6 by William Blum) Quote: " It was torture ...
which most indelibly marked the seven-year Greek nightmare [under
Papadopoulos]. James Becket, an American attorney sent to Greece by
Amnesty International, wrote In December 1969 that "a conservative
estimate would place at not less than two thousand" the number of
people tortured. It was an odious task for Becket to talk to some
of the victims:" and "So brutal and so swift was the repression,
that by September, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands were
before the European Commission of Human Rights to accuse Greece of
violating most of the Commission's conventions. Before the year was
over Amnesty International had sent representatives to Greece to
investigate the situation. From this came a report which asserted
that "Torture as a deliberate practice is carried out by both
Security Police and the Military Police."

^ abcTime Magazine archives
Answering to History Quote: "Witness after witness testified that
within a week of Papadopoulos' April 21, 1967, coup more than 8,000
had been arrested. Of these, 6,188 were banished into exile.
Another 3,500 were subsequently sent to ESA torture centers. One
prosecution witness, former Colonel Spyridon Moustaklis, 49, was
unable to answer questions because brain damage caused by beatings
had left him mute and semiparalyzed. Communicating by groans and
gestures, glaring at the defendants, Moustaklis clumsily tore his
shirt open to reveal the scars that marked his body. Said his wife:
"We have a little girl who has never heard her father's voice."
Verdicts on the 31 accused, which could lead to maximum sentences
of 25 years, are due next month." Monday, Sep. 01, 1975 Retrieved 7
July 2008

^The Poly-Papadopoulos
Time Magazine archives Quote: "Many democratic-minded Greeks resent
the open U.S. support of the Papadopoulos dictatorship. Last month
Washington gave further evidence of its acceptance of his regime by
negotiating for home-port rights in the bays near Athens for the
Mediterranean-based Sixth Fleet. In addition, the Nixon
Administration is trying to persuade Congress to up military aid to
Greece from about $90 million to $118 million." Monday, 03 April,
1972 Retrieved 6 July 2008

^
abMatt Barrett, The Rise of the
Junta in Greece Quote1:In 1971 the movie Woodstock is shown in
Athens, causing near riots. For young people it is one of the most
exciting events of the period and when Jimi Hendrix appears on the
screen the glow of a thousand bic-lighters and candles fills the
theater. Quote2:Savopoulos becomes a hero of the youth. His album
Vromeko Psomi (Dirty Bread) is a classic, a
thinly veiled attack on the dictatorship, that if they heard it,
must have had the colonels wringing their hands wondering what to
do with this guy

^ abMatt Barrett, November 17th,
Cyprus and the Fall of the Junta Quote1:Because tourism is such
an important part of the Greek economy, the bans on mini-skirts,
long hair and other symbols of decadence are not enforced
Quote2:Places like Paradise Beach in Mykonos and Matala, Crete
become hippy colonies, made up mostly of foreigners and a handful
of adventurous young Greeks

^Athens Guide on Socrates rock group "Socrates
will probably never get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame. But while other groups were becoming well known in the free
world, this Hendrix-style blues band was playing to
standing-room-only crowds in a small club in Athens, during
Greece's military dictatorship, a period when even Rolling Stone
albums were hard to find, and for a time illegal"

^Recent Social Trends in
France, 1960-1990 Michel Forsé Quote: "In addition the
writing-off of agricultural debts, the gradual abolition of hard
monetary policy and the supply of loans for opprtunist investments
created a climate of economic euphoria (mainly in 1970–1973).
Although the way in which loans were being provided and their
uncontrollable use constituted the introduction to the process of
de-industrialization which begins with the Ioannides period. The
collapse of the dictatorship, due to the nationalist fury of the
last period, the Ioannides period, led to the collapse of the
compulsive interconnections of power that the civil war and its
consequences had shaped." p. 12 ISBN 0773508872
also Recent Social Trends in Greece, 1960–2000 By Dimitris
Charalambis, Laura Maratou-Alipranti, Andromachi Hadjiyanni
Translated by Dimitris Charalambis, Laura Maratou-Alipranti,
Andromachi Hadjiyanni Contributor Dimitris Charalambis, Laura
Maratou-Alipranti, Andromachi Hadjiyanni Published by
McGill-Queen's Press — MQUP, 2004 ISBN 0773522026, ISBN
9780773522022 701 pages Retrieved 15 August 2008

^
a
b
c
d Ioannis Tzortzis, "The Metapolitefsi that never
was" Quote: "The Americans asked the Greek government to allow
the use of their bases in Greek territory and air space to supply
Israel; Markezinis, backed by
Papadopoulos, denied on the grounds of maintaining good relations
with the Arab countries. This denial is said to have turned the US
against Papadopoulos and Markezinis." Quote: "Thus the students had
been played straight into the hands of Ioannidis, who looked upon
the coming elections with a jaundiced eye." Quote: "The latter
[i.e. Markezinis] would insist until the end of his life that
subversion on behalf… Markezinis was known for his independence to
the US interests." Quote: "In that situation Ioannidis was emerging
as a solution for the officers, in sharp contrast to Papadopoulos,
whose accumulation ‘of so many offices and titles (President of
Republic, Prime Minister, minister of Defence) was harming the
seriousness of the regime and giving it an unacceptable image,
which was not left un-exploited by its opponents". Quote:"The first
attempt of Papadopoulos to start a process of reform occurred in
the spring of 1968. He was claiming that if the 'Revolution' stayed
more than a certain time in power, it would lose its dynamics and
transform into a 'regime', which was not in his intentions. He
tried to implicate Markezinis in the attempt; however, he met the
stiff resistance of the hard-liners. Another attempt was again
frustrated in the end of 1969 and the beginning of 1970;
Papadopoulos was then disappointed and complaining ‘I am being
subverted by my fellow Evelpides cadets!’ As a result of this
second failure, he considered resigning in the summer of 1970,
complaining that he lacked any support from other leading figures,
his own closest followers included. But the rest of the faction
leaders renewed their trust to him." Quote: "The 1973 oil crisis
finally dealt a real financial shock to the Greek economy, as it
did to all non-oil producing countries, and marked the end of
inflation-free growth in Greece for more than two decades."

^KATHIMERINI. "Remember
Pattakos, the striking baldie superstar of the junta, who never
missed a chance to pose with a trowel at hand and never missed a
documentary of Epikaira"

^ abBBC: On this dayquote:A
military communiqué announced the overthrow of the government was
supported by the army, navy and air force and said it was a
"continuation of the revolution of 1967", when the Greek colonels,
headed by Mr Papadopoulos, seized control. The statement went on to
accuse Mr Papadopoulos of "straying from the ideals of the 1967
revolution" and "pushing the country towards parliamentary rule too
quickly".

^"Greece marks '73 student
uprising", and:the notorious Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis
now serving a life sentence for his part in the 1967 seizure of
power — immediately scrapped a programme of liberalisation
introduced earlier and: His was but to do the bidding of a
junta strongman who had never made a secret of his belief that
Greeks were not ready for democracy.Athens News, 17
November 1999

^ Mario Modiano
The Times correspondent in Athens, "A long, happy summer night
30 years ago", Athens News, 23 July 2004 quote1:
My friend had been sworn in as a minister by mistake. After his
coup, Ioannidis dispatched military policemen in jeeps to round up
the people he needed to man a puppet government. When they turned
up at my friend's home and ordered him to follow them, he was
convinced that the soldiers intended to shoot him. quote 2: The
meeting lasted five hours. Then there was a break, and by the time
the meeting resumed, Evangelos Averoff, the former foreign
minister, who was there, had already telephoned Constantine
Karamanlis in Paris to urge him to return immediately and assume
the reins of power.

^ abTime magazine archives "I
Am with You, Democracy Is with You" Quote: "Denied Benefits. When
the Council of Europe tried to investigate charges that the regime
was torturing prisoners, Athens quit the respected if powerless
body rather than risk the inquiry. The Common Market was so
repelled by the actions of the junta that it expelled Greece from
associate membership in the EEC, thus denying the Greek economy
some $300 million annually in agricultural benefits." and
"Caramanlis called the crisis "a national tragedy" and appealed to
Greece's armed forces to bring about a "political change" in a
liberal and democratic direction." Monday, Aug. 05, 1974 Retrieved
6 July 2008

^Coufoudakis, Van Recent
Perspectives on Cyprus Journal of Modern Greek Studies — Volume 20,
Number 1, May 2002, pp. 143–146 Quote: problem of Cyprus and
might have spared the island from the tragedy of 1974.

^Athens news online Quote:
It was clear that this was a critical day for the future of
Greece. Turkey had invaded Cyprus on July 20 while the general
mobilisation ordered by the Greek regime turned out to be a major
fiasco. The civilian government of Adamantios Androutsopoulos,
appointed by the second junta under Military Police Brigadier
Demetrios Ioannides, had suddenly vanished from public
sight

^Models of Transitional Justice — A Comparative
Analysis Stephen A. Garrett International Studies Association 41st
Annual Convention Los Angeles, CA March 14–18, 2000 Quote:
Perhaps as important as anything else in establishing the
vulnerability of that regime to prosecution was its total
discreditation as an institution. Certainly the Cyprus fiasco
played a key role here, but also important was the failure of the
Papadopolous/Ioannides government ever "to consolidate, to
institutionalize and to legitimate itself.